Inagural Pyramid Trip

I finally made my first trip out to Pyramid for the 2013 season after hearing stories of large numbers of 16-20 pound cutthroat trout being caught from shore.  Since October 1st I have been working out of town 4 days a week, replaced a leaking water main, thrown a raging haloween party, and taken care of a sick pregnant wife.Normally I would have about 5 trips to the lake under my belt but I just haven't found time to get out.  So, you can imagine I was giddy like a school girl this morning when I dropped my chair in the water and heaved out some big nasty flies.  It was about 28 degrees with a little bit of chop and some thick cloud cover so I knew it had the potential to be productive.  I started out in my go-to spot I default to when I haven't been out in a while only to find that after 2 hours the fish weren't there.  I bumped into the old timer that made my chair and he said he hadn't seen a fish all day and that he thought that the fish might be in deeper water looking for the thermocline.  So, I headed south to try some of the beaches with big drop offs and deep water.  After resetting at an undisclosed beach I cast the sink tip out and let it sink until the line was submerged up to the rod tip.  I picked up the rod, stripped it twice, and that unmistakable line stop instantly forced me to set the hook like Bill Dance.  You know, the one where you set the hook so hard you almost fall of your ladder.  I knew in an instant it was a large animal by the head shake.  Out at Pyramid a when a smaller fish is on, the head shakes are rapid and managable, if it's a big fish the head shakes are slow and almost uncontrolable.  The head shake on today's first fish was the latter.  He fought for about 5 minutes and found his way into the net.  If you have seen my Pyramid posts in the past, you might notice that my pictures are self shots taken by a camera mounted on my chair.  There is a timer on my camera that forces me, and the fish, to stand still for 10 seconds while the picture to snaps.  After weighing the fish and setting the timer on my camera I attempted to hoist the fish up out of the water and assume the position.  The fish had other ideas and presumed to death roll until he was back in the lake and off into the abyss.  I know not getting a picture of a fish shouldn't take away from the experience of catching it but this one stung a bit.  The first fish of the season was a 12 pound Pilot Peak male that wont be seen on this blog.  But then again, with all of the 18-20 pounders landed out there already, maybe I'll get a shot at his bigger brother.

It feels odd not posting a picture with the long story above so here's a shot of one in the 10-11 pound range I stuck 3 years ago.